Tuesday, December 14, 2010

What promised to be an interesting voyeuristic glimpse into one of Hawaii’s shrinking minority groups turned out to be more than that: it revealed that AP reporter Herbert Sample may be our own Julian Assange.

The story cites a Republican party press release:

Party leaders "have blown so much money and have raised so little money during their failed tenure that the party is now broke and we'll probably lose our headquarters in January when we won't even be able to pay our bills," party gadfly Eric Ryan said in a recent press release. [Daily Reporter (AP), State GOP leaders, activists in turmoil over party finances and headquarters, 12/13/2010]

Many reporters might have received that press release. But next are snips from a series of emails from Republican party chairman Jonah Kaauwai and others, possibly leaked by “gadfly” Eric Ryan, though the source isn’t given.

It appears that the AP has their own whistleblower network within the Republican Party.

Why not spread a wider net? Perhaps they could set up APLeaks.com and see what they get. The domain name is available!

Aren't these the guys who talk about accountability? Aren't these the guys who talk about spending within your means? Aren't these the guys who want smaller government? Well the only thing they has shrunk is the Hawaii Republican Party.

It is difficult to get a feel for the actual state of GOP Hawaii finances from these articles. All we can tell is they are fighting. And that finances are a part of the disagreement.

These are tough times for any organization. The Republicans may be able to climb back from their recent defeats if they are able to capture some of the enthusiasm of those who have recently joined the party or worked on the campaigns.

The downside of that is many of the campaign workers came from the political-religious fringe. Making them feel comfortable might require allowing them more "ownership" of the party, which will likely alienate the few remaining moderate members, as well as independent voters.

I suspect the party's current financial woes represent a temporary cash-flow crunch, easily resolved by the national Republican groups which have sprung up in response to the flood of corporate money unleashed by the Citizens United court ruling.

Mr. Ryan will use this occasion, like any other, to raise his profile as party savior and political strategist extraordinaire. That would include leaking internal party communications and the few emails which sing his praises.